@PopularMechanics _ April 2019 41The 2019 Ford F-150 diesel is
the right engine in the right truck.
CERTAIN SPREADSHEET-MINDED CAR
buyers love to calculate how long it will
take their diesel-powered vehicle to offset its
increased up-front cost through long-term fuel
savings. For instance, the new 3.0-liter diesel in
a 4x4 F-150 Lariat is a $4,000 upcharge over the
2.7-liter EcoBoost V-6, but it gets a combined
22 mpg to the gas engine’s 21 mpg. So, consid-
ering that the average price per gallon of diesel
is about 70 cents more than gasoline, that
within...never. Even if you compare the more
powerful 3.5-liter EcoBoost, the diesel is still
more expensive to buy and to run. And... it’s
slower. And can’t tow as much (11,400 pounds,
compared to 13,200). So why do I like this thing so much?
I think it comes down to the fact that diesels are now more about subjective appeal
than objective stats. And a diesel simply suits this truck. This is a super-quiet engine
(essentially the same one you find in modern Land Rovers) but under throttle it still issues
a soft compression-ignition clatter that connotes a truck ready to get some work done. With
max torque (440 lb-ft) at 1,750 rpm, the 3.0 is relaxed even when it’s working hard. Oh,
and over a four-hour drive, I logged 26.3 mpg. The F-150 diesel feels like a European luxury
SUV crossed with an American pickup. Which, now that I mention it, is exactly what it is.
Benz’s
Best Tech
Intelligent suspension,
augmented reality—
the 2020 GLE 450
drives futuristic.NORMALLY, THE HEADLINE
fact about the GLE 450 would
be that it uses a brand-new turbo
straight six hooked to a 48-volt
hybrid system that can recapturebraking energy and add torque off
the line. But oh, there’s much more
going on, beginning with the clos-
est thing to active suspension that
any company’s yet put into produc-
tion. Thanks to the 48-volt system,
the GLE has the juice to power a full
hydropneumatic suspension that
can actively raise or lower each
wheel as needed. Besides the unreal
ride—a camera scans the road
ahead so the car can proactively
adjust itself to smother bumps—
the GLE suspension has some othertricks. It can lean the car’s body
into corners. It can bounce the car
free if you’re stuck, as if a couple of
invisible friends are jumping on the
bumper. And off-road, you can con-
trol each wheel independently, if
you need to manually extend one
tire and retract another to find
traction. It’s so cool.
And that’s not all. The navi-
gation system uses augmented
reality to overlay your directions
atop a real-time camera feed of the
road. The cruise control knows to
slow down when the speed limit
changes. The seat and steering
wheel can adjust themselves based
on your height. This is old-school
Benz engineering, the kind of
stuff that we’ll probably take for
granted years from now. But you
saw it here first.Base price: $54,695
Glove box: Has a fragrance
dispenser
Massage seats: Can challenge
you to a resistance workoutBase price: $47,295
Transmission: Te n - s p e e d
automatic, which keeps
the diesel pulling in the
sweet spot of its narrow
rev band
Built in the U.K.: The 3.0 is
built at Ford’s Dagenham
plant, alongside the Land
Rover version